


A Future of Infinite Possibility

by Tabithian



Series: Semper Exploro [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 19:38:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/727147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was kind of a foregone conclusion that Tim would join Starfleet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Future of Infinite Possibility

**Author's Note:**

> *hands*

It was kind of a foregone conclusion that Tim would join Starfleet. His instructors try to push him towards the Command track, but Tim. 

Tim's happy in science.

He meets Steph his second year at the Academy in his astrophysics class and she's one of the few who doesn't look at him and see Admiral Drake, scourge of the Klingon empire. (To hear some of the cadets talk.)

She sees _Tim_ , and that's more than most have ever managed to do. 

They're on a survival training exercise deep in the Rocky Mountains when the _Narada_ reaches Earth. They're recalled by shuttle to the Academy, watching events unfold on the shuttles screens in varying states of shock and horror. 

By the time they reach San Francisco the only thing left is cleanup, offering what aid they can to the city and its people while Starfleet deals with the fallout.

When classes recommence a few months later they're put int accelerated courses to get them to graduation that little bit faster. Bring Starfleet up to fighting strength before they can be seen as vulnerable in the aftermath of so many lives lost at Vulcan.

Steph takes the _Kobayashi Maru_ a year after the _Narada_ incident, with Tim manning the bridge's science station. Ives has the helm, and Bernard's navigation.

None of them are prepared for what happens, and the stories about Kirk cheating to win the training exercise makes more sense. 

Everyone's heard Jim Kirk managed to beat the _Kobayashi Maru_ the third time he took it by cheating. Academy rules won't let anyone who's taken it to reveal what the training exercise is to cadets who haven't taken it yet.

“Brilliant bastard,” Steph fumes, when they realize what he must have done. 

Tim gives her a wary look because he knows who she would have gone to for the necessary subroutines.

“No,” he says, when she turns to him with an all too familiar gleam in her eyes.

For one, the instructors must be on the lookout for future incidents like that, and for another? It's a terrible idea.

Steph slings an arm around his neck. “Spoilsport,” she says, but she's laughing as she does.

********

Tim should probably be more surprised when he's assigned to the _Bat_ along with Steph, Ives, and Bernard. She's a light cruiser with a captain infamous for his paranoia as much as his brilliant tactical strategies.

“Oh my God,” Steph says, when they get their first look at the _Bat_ in spacedock above Earth. “She's beautiful.”

There are EVA-suited figures crawling over her hull, finishing up minor repairs she'd incurred after running into a little trouble on her way back to Earth. 

Tim leans closer to get a better view of the ship he's going to serve aboard for the next five years. 

She's _gorgeous_ , proud and graceful with endless space as a backdrop.

“Yeah,” Tim says, because this. This is the real reason he joined Starfleet.

********

Tim's first away mission doesn't go as expected, but very few things ever do.

Contact with a Federation colony has stopped and they're the closest Federation vessel. 

Massive storms on the planet's surface have created atmospheric disturbance that interfere the transporters and communications.

Tim's on the bridge when Captain Wayne accedes to Commander Grayson's request he stay on board the _Bat_ while away teams are sent down by shuttle.

Commander Grayson takes a security detail to Eleusis' main settlement. Tim is sent on a second shuttle with another security detail to investigate strange energy readings to the south of the settlement.

The shuttle goes down shortly after they break through the minutes after they break through the stratosphere.

Lieutenant Todd coaxes the shuttle away from the edge of one of the storms with a mix of swearing and cajoling. They hit hard, digging a long furrow across rocky ground until the shuttle jerks to a stop up against a rocky outcrop. 

They're mostly in one piece. (Mostly.) 

“Where the hell are we?” Lieutenant Todd asks.

They're standing next to the shuttle's hatch, trying to get their bearings. Lieutenant Chapman's distracted, staring into the forest around them, hand on the phaser at his hip. 

Tim opens his mouth to answer when a feral cry fills the air.

They turn to face the direction it came from and see a dark-furred creature running towards them. It shifts to a zigzag path when Lieutenant Todd and Chapman fire at hit, too fast for them to hit.

Tim's cataloging features – quadrupedal, carnivorous going by the fangs, _fast_ \- even as it lunges for him.

Chapman pushes Tim behind him at the last second, getting one last shot off as it bears him down under its weight. 

Tim scrambles back, going for his own phaser, sharp rocks cutting into the soft skin of his palms. Lieutenant Chapman's choked scream burns itself into his mind before it's suddenly, chillingly cut off and Tim looks up to see the creature staring at him, muzzle stained red. 

“Fucker!” Lieutenant Todd yells, drawing its attention away from Tim.

Tim uses the momentary distraction to raise his phaser. He gets a solid hit on its side, to little effect, but Lieutenant Todd snarls and hits it in the chest, pitch of the phaser shot telling Tim it's set to kill. 

The creature staggers towards Todd another step before collapsing. Lieutenant Todd aims another shot at its head, prodding it to make sure it's dead. 

Tim runs to Lieutenant Chapman, checking for a pulse even though he knows he's not going to find one with the ruin of his throat.

“He's dead,” Tim says, when he hears Lieutenant Todd come up behind him, hand dropping away from Chapman's neck.

Todd swears, low and vicious, and looks at Tim. “Are you all right?”

Tim gets to his feet, looks away. “I'm fine,” he says. 

His mother's told him about this, when he told her he wanted to join Starfleet. Told him about the dangers he'd face, the ways he could meet an early death. 

Not cruel, no. Worried for her son, all she had left of a husband who'd died when Klingon raided the planet he was leading an archeological dig on. 

Lieutenant Todd sighs, and says, “Yeah, sure, of course you are.”

Tim doesn't answer, busying himself checking the shuttle's systems, which brings more bad news.

The crash knocked out their emergency beacon, and with the atmospheric disturbance they can't get through to the _Bat_ with the the shuttle's communication system or their own communicators. 

A search party will be sent out to look for them when they don't check in at the designated time, but that's over six hours away. They could hike to the main settlement before then, but that might not be the wisest decision if things aren't what they appear to be.

“Where did the readings originate from?” Lieutenant Todd asks.

Tim points towards a row of low hills. 

“There,” he says.

And because it may be connected, “The main settlement is about twenty kilometer away in the same direction.”

Lieutenant Todd looks at Tim, assessing. “We still have a mission to do.”

“I'll get my gear,” Tim says, ducking past him into the shuttle. 

********

They move Lieutenant Chapman's body into the back of the shuttle to be recovered later and properly laid to rest. 

“I'm sorry,” Tim says, unable to stop himself. 

He knows it's not his fault Lieutenant Chapman died, but it's hard to believe that when the man died protecting him. (He also knows this won't be the first time he's put in this kind of situation.)

Lieutenant Todd looks at him, tired smile on his face. “Not your fault, he says, and covers Chapman with an emergency blanket taken from the shuttle's medical kit.

They seal the shuttle up and Todd glances at him, trying for humor when he asks, “You up for a little stroll?” 

Tim nods, patting his tricorder. He's not getting precise readings from it, but it's giving them a general area to start looking in.

Lieutenant Todd strikes up a conversation with him – stilted, awkward – but it's better than making the hike in silence.

Tim laughs when he tells him who his mother is because he gets looks like the one Lieutenant Todd's giving him all the time.

He's heard the rumors about his mother, how she must be part Vulcan to act the way she does, but. Tim knows that's not the truth. Knows that the death of his father helped make her the person she is now, colder and sharper than she used to be. (That Tim takes after his father as much as he does his mother.)

********

They stumble over the hidden base more by luck than anything else. 

“Well this isn't good,” Lieutenant Todd says. 

Tim watches a group of smugglers loading a shuttle with crates filled with illegal weapons. Does quick calculations in his head based on the cargo limits and ranges for the shuttles and comes up with numbers he doesn't like.

Starfleet sent them out here when communication was cut off with the colony, and Captain Wayne's legendary paranoia and seems to be right on the money, once again.

The world the colonists settled on isn't that far from a system on the verge of civil war. A prime location for smugglers to set up a base of operations where they can provide both sides with weapons. The only complication being a small group of colonists with no real training who would pose little opposition.

“Surprisingly, no,” he agrees, turning his attention to the armed smugglers. Over a dozen at least, and more likely than not more inside the buildings “What now?”

“You're not trained for this,” Lieutenant Todd says, checking his phaser, because of course the smart move in this situation is to go in shooting.

Genius.

“Science division,” Lieutenant Todd says, poking Tim in the chest, then taps his own chest as he says, “Security.”

Tim just _looks_ at him. 

For all that Tim's a scientist, he's in _Starfleet_. He may not have the training Lieutenant Todd does, but Tim's friends with Steph and Cass and they love to drag Tim into their sparring matches. 

Tim points at himself, then Lieutenant Todd. 

“Starfleet,” he says, baring his teeth a little because he's not going to just stand by and let the idiot get himself killed. 

Lieutenant Todd stares at him for a long moment, shoulders sagging.

“Jesus Christ.”

********

Lieutenant Todd's plan is one step up from waltzing onto the base and telling the smugglers they're under arrest.

“This is why I told you to stay out of this,” Lieutenant Todd says.

They're pinned down by the smugglers, taking shelter in the woods outside of the base. The tree trunks are big enough that they can use them for cover, but phaser and blaster fire is whittling them down. Not much time left for them if they don't do something, and of all the ways Tim expected to die, this wasn't one of them.

“I could leave, if you want?” he says, over the phaser fire. “I'm sure they'd let me go after discovering their secret base where they stand to profit from the illegal sales of weapons.”

“Now I know why the commander likes you,” Lieutenant Todd mutters. “Just. Don't die, okay? It'll reflect badly on me.”

Tim rolls his eyes, “Sure.”

He checks his phaser's charge, running low. He looks towards the lieutenant and sees him still grumbling to himself, unaware of the smuggler sneaking up on him.

“Down!” Tim yells. He aims and fires in the next breath, dropping the smuggler with his shot.

Lieutenant Todd stares at him, and Tim shrugs, dodging enemy to reach his side. 

“What now?” he asks.

They don't stand a chance against the smugglers like this, and they both know it. Their only real chance of survival is retreating deeper into the forest, taking to the mountains until they can contact the _Bat_.

Lieutenant Todd grimaces, opens his mouth to give the order – and stops when they hear the sounds of approaching shuttles.

“Holy shit,” Lieutenant Todd says, grin breaking out. “The cavalry’s here.”

Tim looks up to see several Starfleet shuttles closing in on the base, something like relief hitting him.

“About time,” he says, sharing a grin with Lieutenant Todd as Captain Wayne orders the smugglers to lay down their weapons.

“Bastard always has to be dramatic,” Lieutenant Todd says. “Always has to make an entrance.”

Tim doesn't really care at the moment, too relieved at the possibility that he might actually live through this whole mess.

********

Tim talks his way out of overnight observation in sickbay. Doctor Pennyworth makes him work for it though, faint amusement under it all. He's terrifying in his own way, and from the look Doctor Thompkins gives him as he makes his escape, the medical officers share that trait.

Steph and Cass fuss over him, and schedule him for more training sessions.

“Really?” he asks, going over his new schedule. There are whole blocks of his free time set aside for weapons training and hand-to-hand combat.

He can't even claim that he's never going to need those skills after the away mission from hell, and they know it.

“You'll thank us for this one day,” Steph says, unmovable on the matter.

“Guys?” Tim asks, looking to Ives and Bernard. 

“Oooh, put him in for special training sessions with Lieutenant Todd,” Bernard says, meaning the intermediary and advanced self-defense courses he teaches to ensure the _Bat_ 's crew can keep themselves safe.

“Bernard!”

Bernard _smiles_. 

“A little bird told me there were looks being exchanged, Ensign Drake.”

Cass had been among the security officers to storm the smuggler base, and she's one of Jason's most trusted suboritanated. (Clearly Jason doesn't know about this side of her.) 

Tim scowls at her. “Tattletale.”

Cass shrugs and takes the PADD away from Tim to do what Bernard asked because his friends are all terrible people.

“I hate you guys,” he says.

“Sure you do, Tim,” Steph says, patting his head gently. 

Tim's starting to wonder if he should take Commander Kord's offer seriously. At the moment the carrot he's dangling in front of Tim is private quarters, no roommate. No one to drive him crazy with the way they seem determined to do the exact opposite of what he wants.

“You'd miss us,” Steph says, tugging on his hair. “You know you would.”

Yes. That's why.

“Besides,” Steph says, proving why she's one of his closes friends. “You should hold out for the really good stuff.” 

********

Lieutenant Todd (Call me Jason, otherwise it's just going to get weird.”) starts seeking Tim out when they're off shift more and more. At first Tim thinks he's yet another department head trying to lure Tim to their side, but.

“Wow,” Tim says, when Jason tells him about his newest mission. “How could I possibly resist?”

Contrary to popular belief, Tim didn't join Starfleet to find new and exciting ways to die.

“Who knows,” Jason says with a little grin.

Tim can't help the smile, because _Jason_.

“Next time,” he says. Right now he has to keep civil war from breaking out aboard the _Bat_. “I have to make sure Commander Langstrom doesn't declare war on Engineering right now.”

The look that crosses Jason's face is priceless as he visibly chooses _not_ to ask. Always a smart decision with a crew like the _Bat_ 's.

“Yeah, okay,” Jason says. “Next time.”

Tim laughs because knowing their luck there _will_ be a next time.


End file.
